Fixed-camera silents are the most maligned, least appreciated form of film. Made from the 1890s to about 1916, they pre-date the mastery of pans, zooms, close-ups and other techniques we now consider basic to filmmaking. They’re blatantly theatrical in style and staging. They receive little attention, even from lovers of silent film, and when they are discussed, it’s usually in terms of what they lack. They’re treated as artifacts, not art.
